The Declaration
by Womgel
Summary: Robin is encouraged by Tara's affection to declare his own in an aunt-startling manner.
1. Chapter 1

The Declaration: Tara Duncan Fan Fiction

_AN/ I own none of these characters; they all belong to Sophie __Audouin-Mamikonian. This is an alternative ending to chapter … I've forgotten which one, but the one where Robin carries Tara to the throne room. I'm sorry to any Tara Duncan fans who can only read French; hopefully most of you on this site can read English. I would have written it in French, but I don't have any accents on my keyboard, and French without accents looks so weird, I tried a bit and it didn't work. _

Robin gently lowered Tara to the floor. She was grateful for his tact, in not letting her been seen by the whole court as dependent on him, but that happened to be exactly what she wanted the whole court to see. She stood up on tiptoe; trying not to grimace with the pain from her legs, and, in front of the astonished doorman, planted a kiss on his cheek. She then wrapped her arm around his neck and, letting him carry most of her weight in this, slightly awkward position; they advanced into the throne room.

His head was spinning. What was she doing? Letting him basically carry her into the throne room was practically a declaration of her trust in him in front of the entire court of Omois. What did this mean? They were halfway to the thrones now. This was where he would normally, when they walked together into Lisbeth's presence before her legs were injured, turn aside and go stand by the wall. However, if he did that now, the Heir of the throne of Omois would sprawl on the floor. So they continued up the interminable path to the thrones at the end. Suddenly Tara stumbled and fell forwards. Robin caught her and before she managed to hide it under her impassable "heiress face", caught sight of her expression, contorted with pain. He couldn't bear to see her like that. He lifted her again into his arms, carrying her like a child again. Her sigh of relief blew across his neck and he smiled down at her. She smiled back, settling into his chest contentedly. He wished they could stay like this forever, it was so comfortable. Suddenly the throne room, miles long as it was, seemed to shorten, they were practically at the dais already! He deposited her gently into her throne, and turned to walk away. A sudden madness took hold of him. They had been so comfortable together, why shouldn't they stay like that forever? He turned around and strode back towards the thrones.

Ignoring the Empress's shocked exclamation at his interruption of her, he knelt in front of Tara, and, bowing his head in the traditional greeting, asked "Will you do me the honour of accepting my hand in marriage?"

A shocked silence greeted his words. Then Lisbeth spoke, at her most scathing; "And why, half-human should my niece, with the wealth of other possible candidates for her hand accept you? You have no connections, no power, no riches…" Robin knelt there, hearing the tide of abuse wash over him. She was right. What had he been thinking? Tara could marry anyone she chose, why should she go for him? He had been arrogant beyond belief; he should leave now before he got himself even deeper into trouble. Go and live in Hymlia, in the mountains where no-one would ever need to see his half-blood face again.

Tara stood up, wincing, and, cutting across her aunts tirade, said calmly "I will." No one had ever seen Lisbeth so shocked. "W-W-What?" she stammered, shaken. "You accept? Now? Before we've had time to discuss anything? Do you realise what you're throwing yourself away on? You could have had…"

"Yes, now: Before you have time to execute/banish/dispose of him in some other way. I love him, he loves me, and we will marry, in a couple of years' time." She bent down and took Robin's hand, attempting to pull him to his fight, but failing miserably. He got up swiftly and lifted her back into the throne. He stood behind her seat, the perfect cavalier gentleman. She had accepted him. She loved him. He was going to marry her! He looked proudly over at Lisbeth, who was still mouthing like a goldfish out of water. This particular metaphor was helped by the fact that she was wearing gold and crimson today, her hair dyed corn yellow with the customary white streak standing out sharply. He stifled a grin.

"I am tired," said Tara, standing, at her most regal, "any other business can be conducted another day." And she linked her arms around Robin's neck, allowing him to carry her out of the room again.

_AN/ If you want me to write the next chapter in French, just review and say so. It won't have any accents though! Otherwise it'll be in English again. _


	2. Chapter 2

AN/ I have recently been asked to write a second chapter by two different people within the space of a week, so I will tie this minificthing up.

"Tara!" shouted a voice behind her. Struggling not to send decorum to the winds and just run away from this undoubtedly awkward meeting, Tara turned around stiffly, her leg paining her again now that Robin was no longer there to hold her up.

"Lisbeth." Her tone was unpromising to say the least, but Lisbeth on a mission was not to be denied, and she launched straight into her beautifully prepared spiel about duties and responsibilities. As Lisbeth demonstrated once more the extraordinary abilities of her speech writer, (she was quick, Tara would give her that, she'd only had, what, thirty minutes at most since the declaration to write this whole thing up) Tara could almost hear the spiderman theme tune playing in the background.

"Doo dee doo doo doo dee doo" she mumbled, causing Lisbeth to forget her lines and frown at her in confusion.

"Er… What?"

"Earth culture reference, you wouldn't understand. What was that you were saying?" Slurk. Not the right thing to say, apparently.

"You weren't listening to me, young lady?! You do realise I am talking about the future of your life and this emp…!"

Tara cut across her. "Yes. And that's why I don't care. Because, as you say, this is the future of _my_ life we're talking about. Not yours. Or anyone else's. So you can just leave me in peace, OK! I don't care."

"Tara. You don't mean that. Omois is important to you. I know it is."

"Yes, but I just don't see why me marrying Robin is going to ruin the empire."

"If you'd just listened for once, you'd have heard me telling you about all the other more advantageous marriages you could make."

"However, I don't love any of these various princes or merchants. I love Robin. End of. Anyway, the empire seems to be doing quite well without any of these treaties my wedding could lead to. This isn't really what this is about, is it? You're just speciesist. You don't like Robin because he's not completely human. To be honest Lisbeth, you need to grow up. You and your little empire can't survive as the last outposts of speciesism on otherworld for ever. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to see my fiancé. He's probably worried about me. He generally is. With no reason. Mostly. Sometimes. Occasionally. Poor Robin."

Lisbeth stared after Tara as she limped down the corridor.

The speciesist comment had hurt. She knew her empire was proportionally more human than any other country. But no one accused Selenda of being speciesist because it was mostly elves. Nevertheless, Lisbeth was self-aware enough to know that her hatred of Robin was in part due to her disdain for the elves in her services.

"Tara!" Not again, thought Tara as she turned around again, only to find herself suddenly surrounded by warm arms as she looked up into the face of her fiancé.

"Robin!"

"Where have you been? I was worried about you!". One point to me, thought Tara.

"Giving my aunt what she had coming."

"Oh Zelda. Tara, what did you say?"

"I told her she was a speciesist little cow and she could stick her fancy speeches wherever she liked but not give them to me." Tara replied smugly

"You really mean it then. Us getting m-married?"

"You know, you should probably be convinced you want to marry someone, before you ask them."

"I am! Tara you know I love you more than the world. I tell you twenty times a day, at least. I just wasn't sure Lisbeth wouldn't persuade you to wait at least."

"If we wait to announce our engagement she'll just get rid of you. I couldn't bear that. I'm not saying we'll get married right now, just we'll tell the newscrystals now so she can't make you disappear quietly."

"I somehow doubt much announcing will be necessary. Enough scoops covered that ceremony, the news must be all over Otherworld by now."

"Oh yeah. I always forget scoops are not just snitches."

"Er, they kind of are. They find out and tell people's secrets. If that's not snitching…"

"Never mind. I can think of something much more interesting we could be doing…"

Perfectly agreeing with the sentiment behind these words Robin lifted Tara up and carried her back to her sitting room. This manoeuvre was made slightly less graceful by his simultaneous efforts to capture her lips. They got there though.

Next day on Crytter this post did not startle the empire in the least:

**Tara Duncan ImperialHeiress**

RobinM'angil Love you #engaged

Unlike this one:

**Lisbeth'tylanhnem T'al Barmi Empress**

#Congratulations to ImperialHeiress and RobinM'angil

Which caused widespread shock and anxiety. #who-are-you-and-what-have-you-done-to-our-Empress became the number one Otherworld trend within 20 minutes.


End file.
